The Grief Sessions #2: Exquisite Teachings from Love with Gayle Danley
"My work is not just to be the poet…but the person who says ‘Man, I’ve been hurt in my life. Have you?’”
In this second episode of The Grief Sessions, Susan is joined by Gayle Danley, slam poet and grief guide to children and teenagers across the nation.
Together they discuss the importance of acknowledging the existence of grief in the lives of children, how to listen and ask questions, so that they can find their voices and allow it to take shape through poetry, writing, art or however they wish to express themselves.
Meet This Episode's Guest
Gayle Danley
Soon after crushing the competition at Asheville's National Poetry Slam in 1994, Gayle Danley entered America's classrooms teaching thousands of children how to access their emotions through the force of words. She performed and taught her way from Maryland Young Audience's Artist of the Year, to National Young Audience's Artist of the Year. She's also both a former national and international poetry slam champion.
CBS 60 Minutes profiled her work with middle schoolers as well as the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and New York Times. For the past five years, Gayle's Grief friend sessions have given voice to women who are living with AIDS, incarcerated youth and to those struggling with drug addiction and recovery. Gayle was recently named Maryland Library Association Poet of the Year.
Find more of Gayle’s work below:
Gayle Danley: http://gayledanleypoet.com/
Grief Friend: http://grieffriend.org/
The Transcontinental Educator Artist Collective for Humanity - TEACH: https://teach-arts.sharetribe.com/
Poem for my Sisters With Sons:
Breathe:
Pull a clean fist of air inside your self and let it rest there wide and unfrightened inside your belly asking for nothing
Remember when the baby boy was there Stirring and fighting and kicking things around inside of you.
And where is he now? Kicking at air asking for everything Defiance rippling on the edge of his skin Beautiful as water
And do not worry if your brown boy doesn't smile enough as long as he still smiles at you: over dinner
over the news from beneath a curtain of hair tangled and sprawled, it is enough
Does he still know your name? Good. Does he still reach for you when there is blood Does he still make you want to kill him on Monday mornings and kill FOR him on Saturday nights? Good Is he still breathing good good good
Your turn: breathe again until all the air you can find makes home within your body Your black sad scared hopeful body Round and trembling like your mother's
Rest now tomorrow will come before you know it with her hair on fire and her knee on your neck Your son knows you are his home He has memorized all the valleys in your voice every scream and grin He ain't going anywhere far He is not leaving you He will not vanish he will not stray Your breath is his Your love is his
Never leaving never dying never going
away
